As it appears, lots (or even all) of German Steam users have troubles getting steam to launch today.

A simple "could not connect to Steam network" message will appear after the login which simply quits Steam, no chance to get into offline mode or whatsoever.

1166

Anyone out there who successfully managed to circumvent that issue, either by tricking Steam into offline mode or other means?

I'm not raging as I can still play the game I wanted to play anyway, but this is basically what all the doomsday prophets were talking off: No (obvious) way of accessing your games due to a hickup on Steam's side.

I bet Gabe will give me a TF2 item or similar worthless crap as compensation.

Fruppy

19-04-2012, 06:25 PM

Easy bypass.

1. Download Hotspot Shield to login under a different IP.
2. Turn off Hotspot Shield and play; ONLINE!

Mistabashi

19-04-2012, 06:26 PM

I've had issues in the past (with the old client) where Steam would refuse to go into offline mode if it detects an internet connection but can't connect (my internet was down), the solution being to physically disconnect from the modem/router (although I've had similar connection issues recently and Steam's offline mode has worked fine, your mileage may vary). Once you're in the client you can select the Steam server you want to connect to from the settings menu, so if there's an issue with the German servers you should be able to bypass it.